Fonseca hails 'superior' Porto

Paulo Fonseca believes that Porto were the better side in their 1-1 UEFA Champions League draw with Zenit St Petersburg.

Fonseca's Porto took the lead after 23 minutes through Lucho Gonzalez, but they were denied the three points when Hulk equalised against his former club five minutes later.

The draw leaves Porto third in Group G, with Fonseca claiming that his side were unfortunate not to take three points in Russia, and adding that he remains hopeful of qualification for the knockout stages.

"After these two games against Zenit, it's fair to say we were superior," he said.

"Today we put in a great first half, but we didn't win. The team are really down but we won't give up.

"We still have two games left and we believe in our qualification chances as long as we keep playing like this."

Hulk, who missed a penalty seven minutes into the second half, took advantage of a defensive mix-up involving Nicolas Otamendi, Eliaquim Mangala and goalkeeper Helton to equalise.

However, Fonseca refused to blame individuals, insisting that he still took plenty of positives from the performance.

"Regarding the goal we conceded, when there are mistakes it's everybody's fault. I'm the main person responsible but Zenit's goal doesn't take credit away from our good first half," he continued.

"The problem is that we are on a run where we get punished for our first mistake. We were exceptional at all levels, and only one team wanted to win, us, against an opponent relying on the counter-attack.

"However, there are no moral victories and we are in a difficult position, relying on other results going our way."